We are the founders of Altruhelp.com, an online community & software solution to increase volunteering, civic engagement, and altruism. We write about all things social entrepreneurship: individuals, ventures, events and ideas that are re-shaping the world to galvanize positive change. What's your Social Impact?

Networking at the White House: How to Create Awareness For Your Cause

As a social entrepreneur, my engineering mindset sets me apart from most MBA students and young professionals leaving corporate positions to pursue great causes. I view the world as a system. Six years at MIT gave me a six sigma perspective that helps me recognize the inputs and outputs I need each day to achieve my desired results. The truth is that among all the key skills a social entrepreneur can have, I see none as more important than being able to effectively create awareness for your cause. How do you stand out, be heard, garner attention and maintain it?

For me, this means taking advantage of every opportunity and asking good questions. I think about creating awareness as fostering new potential. This is the potential to be discovered by others and the potential of helping new stakeholders in your target audience understand how you can help them address their pain points.

This summer I was able to create awareness for my company, AltruHelp, at one of the world’s biggest stages, the White House. I attended an invite only event hosted by the A Billion + Change initiative. A Billion + Change is a national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono skills-based volunteer (SBV) services by 2013. It was launched by the US Government’s Corporation for National & Community Service in 2008 and continues as an initiative of the federal agency. The AltruHelp team joined the reinvigorated initiative in January with our pledge commitment alongside 60 other organizations. The campaign has since grown like wildfire and now exceeds pledges from over 200 organizations.

My day started with a breakfast for C-level executives of participating organizations in the Indian Treaty Room on the 4th floor of the White House. This two floor room with a wrap-around balcony has beautifully hand crafted walls with tones of brown, yellow and gold. Over coffee and pastries I spoke with the CEO of the Ritz-Carlton and the CEO of Capital One.

Here are two awesome ways these companies are giving back which you might not be aware of:

The Ritz Carlton mentors 7th and 8th graders in their Succeed Through Service campaign to help prepare young students with necessary life skills while engaging them in service-learning and career exploration.

Capital One teaches financial literacy through high school student run banks which provide students with real world experience in money management.

More people should be aware of these awesome initiatives yet learning about corporate social impact, even on well-designed websites, is not typically easy. A recent Penn Schoen Berland Survey found only 13% of consumers actually read about a company’s responsibility agenda on the corporate website and nearly 8 In 10 employees are unclear or unaware of their employer’s responsibility activities. My team at AltruHelp is working to address this problem by providing organizations and individuals with social technology to amplify awareness of civic initiatives to relevant audiences while inspiring increased levels of service.

In speaking with other C-level executives, one question helped me create the awareness I needed: How does your organization effectively share social responsibility information with others? Capturing attention and leading to further discussion, I left breakfast with more than a few business cards.

The rest of the morning did not skip a beat. After moving to the South Court Auditorium, a series of panel sessions provided key insight into different aspects of pro bono work, ranging from how companies view SBV as employee development training to how civil participation complements the efforts of the business community. Closing remarks by Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, reaffirmed the importance of corporate leadership in skills-based service.

Rarely do you get opportunities such as mine at the White House. Leverage each new opportunity as a way to generate awareness for your cause – ask good questions along the way – and you will surely differentiate yourself as a social entrepreneur.

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